Campaign '94.

Now For Main Event On Townships

October 28, 1994|By Charles Mount, Tribune Staff Writer.

The skirmishes are over, let the war begin.

That was the cry Thursday in McHenry County as both supporters and opponents of township government marshaled their volunteer armies in an effort to win voters in a battle over whether townships should be abolished in the county.

The lines were firmly drawn after the Illinois Appellate Court on Wednesday ended a seven-week legal entanglement by ruling that a binding referendum on the issue should be put before the county's 107,190 voters Nov. 8.

"We will have several hundred volunteers going door-to-door at night and on the two weekends remaining before the election, passing out brochures on the benefits of township government," said Thomas Schober, Algonquin Township supervisor and a leading supporter of townships. "We also will have direct mailings going to all the homes of registered voters and hundreds of signs along roads and in yards.

"We've gotten offers of help from as far away as Peoria, Springfield, Galena and Bloomington because people are afraid of the effect that abolishing townships in this county will have in their areas."

Meanwhile, Robert Anderson, a Wonder Lake barber and the chief organizer of the anti-township referendum drive, said supporters are distributing thousands of pamphlets at commuter stations, shopping centers and community meetings explaining why townships are no longer necessary and are a waste of taxpayer money.

"We're going wherever the people are," said Anderson, president of Concerned Taxpayers for Integrity in Government. "I think the fact that we got 13,347 signatures on the petitions gives us a head start because some people have said they don't need our literature, since they have already decided to vote townships out.

"Every free minute I've got I'll be out campaigning, particularly in Algonquin, Nunda and McHenry Townships, where two-thirds of the county's population is.

"It's a relief to finally get the litigation over with and get the question on the ballot."

Schober plans to stress that abolishing townships would eliminate the first step in the assessment appeal process because all assessments would be taken over by the county. Only the state board of review would be able to hear appeals from the county.

"Assessments would be in the hands of appointed county and state bureaucrats instead of locally elected assessors," Schober said.

In addition to changes in assessment practices, a rejection of township government would lead to replacement of the 24-member County Board with three commissioners. The county also would take over responsibility for hundreds of miles of highway now under township control.

Besides spurring a flurry of activity for township supporters and opponents, the Appellate Court's decision also has created a lot of night and weekend work for County Clerk Katherine Schultz and the 12 employees of her office because they have to send out new absentee ballots to as many as 1,700 people who had received ballots without the anti-township referendum question.

Schultz also has to get referendum pages printed to go into 900 voting-machine booklets that will be used in polling places.

McHenry County Circuit Judge James Franz, whose order putting the issue on the ballot was upheld by the appeals court, ordered Schultz on Thursday to redistribute the absentee ballots and to throw out the original ballots when new ones come back. If a second ballot is not returned by Nov. 8, the first one will be counted without a referendum vote, Franz ordered.

"A lot of the second ballots probably won't be returned in time, especially if they go overseas," Schultz said. "We're told it takes seven days just to go to Arizona and back."